‘Outlander’ Keeps Cast And Viewers On Their Time-Traveling Toes In Season 3 – TCA

Season 3 of Starz’s Outlander, unveiling September 10, picks up where last season’s cliffhanger left fans hanging: Caitriona Balfe’s Claire tossed back into post-World War II, separating her from Sam Heughan’s Jamie just before the Battle of Culloden. The season spans their two-decade separation, which, for her, spans the 1940s through the 60’s, cast and EP’s told TV critics at TCA.

After those 20 years, they will reunite in Episode 5, which showrunner Ronald Moore says felt like the right amount of time and space, explaining, “You don’t want to brush over it.”

“Anyone who has read Diana [Gabaldon’s] books knows it’s just a sequence of twists and turns,” Balfe told critics. “You’re constantly being kept on your toes. Who would have thought we’d end up on ships and in Jamaica this season?” And who would have thought they’d use the ships from Starz’s Black Sails.

To date the series has dramatized one of Gabaldon’s books per season, though Moore said that was not a rule. “We’re not bound to do a season a book,” he explained, saying it’s a matter of “what’s the best way of telling the story.”

But it’s unlikely Outlander will ever outrun the books, Game of Throne-ishly, given the pace at which Gabaldon writes.

“I cannot imagine a scenario where we catch up with Diana Gabaldon. He said noting she’s now writing the ninth Outlander book.